InfluenceWatch Friday

InfluenceWatch, a project of Capital Research Center, is a comprehensive and ever-evolving compilation of our research into the numerous advocacy groups, foundations, and donors working to influence the public policy process. The website offers transparency into these influencers’ funding, motives, and connections while providing insight often neglected by other watchdog groups.

The information compiled in InfluenceWatch gives news outlets and other interested parties research to use in reporting on significant topics that are often overlooked by the American public.

CRC is pleased to present some of the most significant additions to InfluenceWatch in the past week:

• The National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) is a public policy group that provides legal services to members of the Jewish faith within the United States and abroad while using litigation to combat antisemitism. Following the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas, the NJAC joined several law firms in suing Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation (AJP Education Fund) and National Students for Justice in Palestine(NSJP). Representing nine American and Israeli victims of the attacks, the lawsuit argues that the two organizations work in the United States as collaborators and propogandists for the Hamas terror group.
• Masar Badil, also known as the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, is a radical-left organization that advocates for the “decolonization” of Palestine and the abolition of the state of Israel. According to Palestinian activist Rima Najjar, Masar Badil is different from some other anti-Israel efforts such as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in that it focuses on supporting a “single, undivided Palestine from the river to the sea.” The group runs a “Palestinian Alternative Student Path” that encourages Palestinian students to become involved in demonstrations and other “revolutionary” actions.
• The Jefferson Regional Foundation is a network of over 100 grantmaking organizations located in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area whose strategic priorities include the left-of-center concept of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). It also supports the concept of racial justice and hosts projects that feature material on “implicit bias.” In May 2024, the foundation’s community engagement manager Daniel Vereb participated in a webinar on civic engagement run by the Council on Foundations that also featured speakers from the Funders Committee for Civic Participation and Nonprofit VOTE.
• Longview Philanthropy is a left-of-center group that provides advisory services for grantmaking organizations within the United States and the United Kingdom. Longview Philanthropy provides recommendations for grantmaking to organizations in several areas including climate change, public health, nuclear weapons, and artificial intelligence. Groups that have received recommendation for funding include Clean Air Task Force, Carbon 180, the Council on Strategic Risk, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Brookings Institution.
• The Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation established by the family of Marie Lamfrom, who started the Columbia Sportswear company in 1938. Beginning in 2023, the foundation provided grants to the Social Justice Film Festival in Seattle, Washington, which showcases films promoting left-of-center and far-left political and cultural views. The foundation has also previously made grants to organizations that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. In 2022, it gave $50,000 to the Oregon Futures Lab Education Fund, sponsored by the left-of-center Tides Foundation.